Daily Archives: June 5, 2012

I know today’s blog post is a bit late, I wanted to make these a few days ago but just didn’t get the chance. If you’ve never canned before don’t be afraid. You can still make this recipe, pop the cherries into a jar and keep them in your fridge and use them within 2-3 weeks.

Homemade Maraschino Cherries (adapted from the book Raising the Bar)
-3/4 cup of water
-3/4 cup of black cherry juice (if you can’t find cherry juice you can use concord grape)
-3/4 cup of granulated sugar
-3 tablespoons of lemon juice
-1/2 teaspoon of pure almond extract
-2-3 cups of sweet cherries pitted (I use this Cherry Pitter as it was under $4 and worked great)
In a saucepan combine water, cherry juice, and sugar. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the mixture until the sugar has dissolved (about 2 minutes).

Add the cherries, lemon juice, and almond extract. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes or until the cherries have exuded some of their juice and the syrup has taken on a distinctly cherry flavor. Be careful not to overcook. The point is not to actually cook the cherries, but to heat them in the syrup just long enough to bring out their essence.

Remove from pan and transfer into sanitized canning jars (or allow to cool and transfer to a tight fitted lid and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks.